Hosea 14:5–7 (Edward Reynolds)

Ver. 5 — 7. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under ids shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

In these verses is contained God’s answer to the second part of Israel’s petition, wherein they desired him to do them good, or to “receive” them “graciously;” and here God promises them several singuljir blessings, set forth by various metaphors and similitudes, all answering to the name of Ephraim, and the ancient promises made to him, Deut. xxxiii. 13 — 17. These blessings are opposed to many visitations threatened in the former parts of the prophecy, under metaphors of contrary import. The dew of grace, is opposed to “the morning cloud, and the early dew that passeth away,” chap. xiii. 3; lilies, olives, vines, spices, to the judgments of nettles, thorns, thistles, chap. x. 8; spreading roots, to dry roots, chap. ix. 16; a fruitful vine, bringing forth excellent wine, is here opposed to an empty vine, bringing fruit only to itself, that is, so sour and unsavoury, as is not worth the gathering, chap. X. 1; corn growing, instead of corn taken quite away, chap. ii. 9, instead of no stalk, and the bud yielding no meal, chap. viii. 7; fruit promised, instead of no fruit threatened, chap. ix. 16; wine promised, in opposition to the failing of wine, chap. ix. 2; slyeet wine, opposed to sour drink, chap. iv. 18; safe dwelling, instead of no dwelling, chap. ix. 3; branches growing and spreading, instead of branches consumed, chap. xi. 6; green trees, instead of dry springs, chap. xiii. 15: and all these fruits the fruits as of Lebanon, which was the most feitUe part of that country, a mountain full of various idnds of the most excellent trees, cedars,

et, Non est terribile sed suave mandatura. De Grat. Christi, lib. 1. cap. 13. Suave fit quod non delectabat. De Peccat Merit, et Remis. lib. 2. cap. 17. Contr. 2. epist. Pelag. lib. 1. cap. 9. lib. 3. cap. 4. de Doctr. Christi, lib. 1. cap. 15. de Spiritu et Lit. cap. 3.

AX Exrosmox of

Ceap. xn’.

cypresses, olives, and divers others, affording rich gums and balsams; abounding also in the most medicinal and aromatic herbs, sending forth a most fragrant odour, whereby all harmful and venomous creatures were driven from harbouring there; and in the valleys of that mountain were rich grounds for pasture, com, and vineyards, as the learned in their descriptions of the Holy Land have obscrled.

The source of all these blessings is the heavenly dew of God“s grace and favour, (alluding to the abundance of dew which fell on that mountain,) descending on the church, as on a garden, bringing forth lilies; as on a forest, strengthening the cedars; as on a vinej-ard, spreading abroad the branches: as on an oliveyard, making the trees thereof green and fruitful; and as on a rich field, reviving the com. Here is spiritual beauty, the beauty of the lily, exceeding that of Solomon in all his glory; spiritual stabilitj-, the roots of the cedars, and other goodly trees in that mountain; spiritual odours, and spices of Lebanon; spiritual fruitfulness, and that of all sorts and kinds for the comfort of life: the fruit of the field, “bread which strengtheneth;” the fruit of the olive trees, “oil to make his face to shine;” the fruit of the vineyard, “wine that maketh glad the heart of man,” PsaL civ. 15.

We esteem him a very rich man, and most excellently accommodated, who has gardens wlwYwt for pleasure, and fields for com and pasi,vfi,,jh>,.^ii- ture, and woods for fuel, for structure, M^t.’«’V^U for defence, for beauty, and delight; and raXii “i. vineyards for wine an’d oil; and all other vk i. a. d< Oo- conveniences both for the necessities and delights of a plentiful life. Thus is the church here set forth to us as such a wealthy man, furnished with the unsearchable riches of Christ, with every kind of blessing both for sanctitv and safety: as the aposUe praises “the God and Fatier of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ;” namely, election to eternal life, adoption to the condition of sons, and to a glorious inheritance, redemption from misery to blessedness, remission of sins, knowledge of his will, holiness and unblamableness of life, and the seal of the Holy Spirit of promise, Eph. i. 3 — 13.

The scope of the words, thus shovring that God singles out so many excellent good things by name in answer to that general petition. “receive us graciously,” or do us good, suggests the following general observation.

Obs. 1. God often answers prayer abundantly beyond the petitions of his people. They prayed only for good in general, leaving it (as it becomes us. who know not always what is good for us) to his holy will and wisdom in what manner and measure to do them that good; and he answers them in particular with all kinds of good things. So in the former petition they prayed in general for the forgiveness of sin, and God in particular promises the healing of their rebellions, which was the greates* oj their sins. God often answers the nrpy- / his jieoplc, as he did the seed of Isaac ^iih a hundredfold increase, Gen. xxvi. 12. ’ ood’s word never returns empty unto him, so the prayers of his servants never return empty to them; and usually the crop of prayer is greater than the seed out of which it grew, as the putting in of a little water into a pump makes way to the drawing out of a great deal more. Isaac and Kcbekah had lived twenty years together without any children, and he grew now in rears, for he was forty years old before he married: hereupon he solemnly prays to God in behalf of his wife, because she was barren, and God gave him more than it is probable he expected, for he gave him two sons at a birth. Gen. xxv. 21, 22. As the cloud, which rises out of the earth often in thin and insensible vapours, falls down in great and abundant showers: so our prayers, which ascend weak and narrow, return

S^th a full and enlarged answer. God deals in lis point with his children, as Joseph did with his brethren in Egypt; he not onlv put com into their sacks, but returned the money w“hich they brought to purchase it. Gen. xlii. 25. So he dealt with Solomon, he not only gave him wisdom and gifts of government, which he asked, but further gave him “both riches and honour,” which he asked not, 1 Kings iii. 13. The people of Israel, when they were distressed by the Ammonites, besought the Lord for help; he turns back their prayers, and sends them to their idols to help them: they humble themselves, and put away their idols, and pray again, and the highest pitch to which their petitions mounted was, “We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day,” Judg. x. 15; and God answered this prayer beyond its contents; he not only delivered them from tlic enemy, and so saved them, but subdued the enemy under them, and delivered him into their hands; he not only gave them the relief they desired, but a glorious victor)- beyond their desires, Judg. xi. 22. God deals with his servants as the prophet did with the woman of Shunem; when he bid her ask what she needed, and tcU him what she woiUd have him do for the kindness she had done to him, and she found not any thing to request at his hands, he sends for her again, and makes her a free promise of that which she most wanted and desired, telling her that God would give her a son, 2 Kings iv. 16. So many times God is pleased to sive his servants such things as they forget to ask, or gives them the things which they ask in a fuller measure than their own desires durst propose them. David, in his troubles, asked “life” of God, and would have esteemed it a great mercy to have been merely delivered from the fear of his enemies; and God not only answers him according to the desire of his heart in that particular, and above it too, for he gave him “length of days for ever and ever;” but, further, settled the crown upon his head, and added “honour and majesty” to his life, Psal. xxi. 2 — 5. And the reasons hereof are principally two. 1. AVe beg of God according to the sense and knowledge which we have of our own wants, and according to the measure of that love which we bear to ourselves. The greater our love is to ourselves, the more active and importunate will our petitions be for such good things as we need. But God answers prayers according to his knowledge of us, and according to the love which he bears to us, Now God knows what things we want much better than we do ourselves, and he loves our souls much better than we love them ourselves, and therefore he gives us more and better things than our own prayers know how to ask of him. A liiOe child will beg none but trifles and mean things of his father, because he has not understanding to look higher, or to value things that are more excellent; but his father, knowing better what is good for him, bestows on him education, trains him to learning and virtue, that he may be fit to manage and enjoy that inheritance which he provides for him: so “we know not what we should pray for as we ought,” Rom, viiL 26; and when we do know our spirits are much straitened, we have but a finite and narrow love to ourselves: but God’s knowledge is infinite, and his love is infinite, and according to these are the distributions of his mercy. Even the apostle himself, when he was in aflliction. and buffeted by the messenger of Satan, and vexed with a thom in his flesh, besought the Lord for nothing but “that it might depart;” but God had a far better answer in store to the apostle’s prayer, and purposed to do more for him than ne desired, namely,

THE PROrHECY OF HOSEA. to give him a sufficiency of grace to support him, and to magnify his strength in the infirmity of his servant, 2 Cor. xii. 9. When the prophet had encouraged men to “seek” the Lord, and to “return” unto him, and that upon this assurance, that he ‘will not only hear petitions for mercy and forgiveness, but “will abundantly pardon,” or will multiply to pardon, that is, will pardon more sins than we can confess, (for with him there is not only “mercy,” but “plenteous redemption,” Psal. cxxx. 7,) he further strengthens our faith, and encourages our obedience to this duty, by the consideration of the “thoughts” of God, to wit, his thoughts of love, mercy, and peace towards us: “My thoughts are not yom- thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,” Isa. Iv. 6 — 9. He can pardon beyond otu- petitions, because his thoughts of mercy towards us are beyond our apprehensions, Jer. xxix. 10 — 14.

2. God answers prayers not always with respect to the narrow compass of our weak desires, but with respect to his own honour, and to the declaration of his own gi-eatness; for he promises to hear us that we may “glorify” him, Psal. 1. 15. Therefore he is pleased to exceed our petitions, and to do for us abundantly above what we ask or think, that cur hearts may be more abundantly enlarged, and our mouths wide opened in rendering honour unto him. AVhen PeriUus, a favourite of Alexander, begged of him a portion for his daughters, the king appointed that fifty talents should be given to him, and he answered that ten would be sufficient; the king replied that ten were enough for Perillus to ask, but not enough for Alexander to grant.* So God is pleased many times to give more than we ask, that we may look upon it not only as an act of mercy, but as an act of honour; and to teach us in all our prayers to move God as well by his glory as by his mercy. So Closes, when he prays for pardon to Israel, lest God’s name should be blasphemed. Numb. xiv. 15 — 19. So Joshua, when Israel turned their backs before theu- enemies: “What wilt thou do unto thy great name?” Josh. vii. 9. So Solomon, in his prayer at the dedication of the temple: “Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for; that all people of the earth may know thy name,” 1 Kings viii. 43. So David, in his petitions for Israel, and for the performance of God’s promise to the seed of David: “Do” all “as thou hast said. Let it even be established, that thy name may be magnified for ever,” 1 Chron. xvii. 23, 24. So Asa: “O Lord, thou art our God; let not man prevail, against thee,” 2 Chron. xiv. 11. So Jehoshaphat: “O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?” 2 Chron. xx. 6. So Hezekiah, when he spread the blasphemies of Sennacherib before the Lord: “Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only,” Isa. xxxvii. 20. So the church of God in the time of distress: “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and pui-ge away our sins, for thy name’s sake. AATierefore should the heathen say, AVhere is then- God?” Psal. lxxix. 9, 10. As every creature of God was made for his glory, Prov. xvi. 4; Rom. xi. 36; so everj’ attribute of God works and puts forth itself for his glorj’. If he show mercy, it is to show “the riches of his glorj-,” Rom. ix. 23; Eph. i. 11, 12. If he execute justice, it is to “make

* IlEptWou TtVos Twv tpiXwv aiTijffayTos TrpoiKa Tot?

2 U

“his power known,” Rom. ix. 17, 22; 2 Thess. i. 9. AVTien he puts forth his power, and does terrible things, it is to make his “name known,” Isa. lxiv. 1 — 3. If he engage his truth, and make his promises yea and amen, it is for his own glory, and that his name may be magnified in doing what he has said, 2 Cor. i. 20; 2 Sam. vii. 25, 2G. Whenever therefore we pray to God, and therein implore his mercy on us, his justice on his enemies, his truth to be fulfilled, his power, wisdom, or any other attrilDute to be manifested toward his people, the highest and most prevailing medium we can use, is the glory of his own name. God’s ultimate end in working must needs be our strongest argument in praying, because therein it appears that we seek his interest in our petitions as well as and above our own.

This serves, 1. To encourage us unto prayer, because God not only hears and answers prayers, which is a sufficient motive to his servants to call upon him, “O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come,” Psal. lxv. 2; lxvi. 20; lxxxvi. 5 — 7; cii. 17; but because he oftentimes exceeds the modesty, the ignorance, the fearfulness of our requests, by giving to us more than we ask. When poor men make requests to us, we usually answer them as the echo does the voice, the answer cuts off half the petition. Like the hypocrite noticed by the apostle, James ii. 15, 16, when he saw a brother or sister naked, or destitute of daily food, would bid him “Depart in peace, be ye wanned and filled,” but in the mean time would give him nothing that was needful; and so rather mocked than answered their requests. We shall seldom find among men Jael’s courtesy, Judg. V. 25, giving milk to those that ask water, except it be as hers was, cupov dcwpoi/,

muvus cum liamo, an entangling benefit, the better to introduce a mischief: there are not many Naamans among us, that, when jou beg of them one talent, will force you to take two, 2 Kings v. 23; but God’s answer to our prayers is like a multiplying glass, which renders the request much greater in the answer than it was in the prayer. As when we cast a stone into the water, though but small in itself, yet the circles which it causes spread wider and wider till they fill the whole pond: so our petitions, though ver)- weak as they come from us, and craving but some one or other good thing, yet gaining access to the fountain of life, and unsearchable treasure of mercy which is in Christ, are usually answered with many and more spreading benefits. The trumpet exceedingly strengthens jritm nosier u the voice which passes thi-ough it; it is rio«m sonum redbut as a sUent breath as it comes from pa toiS^’caiSiis” “’ the mouth entering in at a narrow pas- p°feiu’raeM^i’ sage, but it issues forth with spreading ^“J//E°if’JS^.”- and multiplied vigour: so our prayers usually go up confined to God, but they come down again with enlarged answers from him; as the root is but of one colour, when the flower which grows out of it is beautified with variety.

Now this should be a great encouragement to us to call upon God with sincerity of heart, because he multiplies to pardon, because we “know not the numbers” of his salvation, Psal. lxxi. 15, we cannot count the sum of his thoughts towards us, Psal. exxxix. 17, 18. If any man were so wealthy, that it were all one with him to give pounds or pence, and who usually, when asked for silver, would give gold, every indigent and necessitous person would wait on this man’s mercy. Now, it is as easy with God to give talents as farthings, as easy to over-answer prayers as to answer them at all. It is as easy to the sun to fiU a vast palace as a little closet with light; as easy to the sea to fill a channel as a bucket with water. He can satisfy with

C£ cjii’irravTO’s Ikuvu thai ciKtr Soi yi iiprj Xafiiiv, ifiol S’ oiix Uai/a Couiiat. Plutarch. Apophtheg.

goodness, and answer with wonderful and terrible things, Psal. lxv. 4, 5. Oh who would not make requests to such a God, whose usual answer to prayer is, “Be it unto thee even as thou wilt,” JIatt. xv. 2S; nay, who answers us beyond our own wills and thoughts, Eph. iii. 20, and measures forth mercy by the greatness of his own grace, and not by the narrowness of our desires? The shekel belonging to the sanctuary was, as many learned men think, in weight double to the common shekel which was used in civil matters; to note to us, that as God expects from us double the care in things belonging to him above what we use in the things of the world, so he usually measures back double to us again; “good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over,” “into “our” bosoms,” Luke vi. 38. When the man sick of the palsy was carried to Christ to be healed, Christ did beyond the expectation of those that brought him, for he not only cured him of his disease, but of his sin, gave him not only health of body, but peace of conscience; first, “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee;” and then, ‘• Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house,” ilatt. ix. 2, 6. The thief on the cross besought Christ to remember him when he came into his kingdom, but Christ answers him far beyond his petition, assuring him that the very same day he should be with him in paradise, Luke xxiii. 42, 43. The poor man at the gate of the temple begged for nothing of Peter and John but a small alms, but they gave him an answer to his request far more worth than any other alms could be, namely, such an alms as caused him to stand in need of alms no longer, restoring him in the name of Christ to sound strength, that he walked, and leaped, and praised God, Acts iii. 6 — 8. In like fiiSnuUtn°toJSo manner God answers the prayers ot his ad uiuiutein pcoplc, not always it may be in the kind,

aVi (ycTt :ia-’ and to the express will of him that asks, ^”iJS^tSstiii but for the better, and consequently Plutarch Laconic, more to his real will than he himself

Apophthcg.

expressed. 2. To encourage us in prayer to beg for an answer, not according to the defect and narrowness of our own low conceptions, but according to the fulness of God’s own abundant mercies. It would not please one of us if a beggar should ask of us gold or jewels, sUk or dainties; we would esteem such a petitioner more full of pride and impudence than of want. But God delights to have his people beg great things of him, to implore the performance of “exceeding great and precious piomises,” 2 Pet. i. 4; to pray for a share in “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” to know things which pass knowledge, and to “be filled with all the fulness of God,” Eph. iii. 8, 18, 19; to ask things which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,” 1 Cor. ii. 9; to ask not as beggars only for an alms, but as children for an inheritance, Rom. viii. 15, 17, 23; Gal. iv. 6, 7; not to ask some thing, or a few things, but “in every thing “to let our” requests be made known unto God,” Phil. iv. 6, because with Christ he doth ‘• freely give us all things,” Rom. viii. 32, even “richly all things to enjoy,” 1 Tim. vi. 17. As Alexander the Great was well pleased with Anaxarchus the philosopher when he desired a hundred talents of his treasurer: He docs well, saith he, in asking it, and understands his friend aright, who ha.s one both able and willing to give him so great a gift. God allows his children a s])iritual and heavenly ambition, to covet earnestly the best gifts, 1 Cor. xii. 31; to aspire to a kingdom, and accordingly to put up to him great and honourable requests; to think what great tilings Christ has purchased, what great things God has promised and proposed to us, and to regulate our prayers more by the merits and riches of Christ, and by the greatness of God’s mercies, than by

those apprehensions which we cannot but have of our own unworthiness.

Thus far from the general scope of the text, and though many particular observations might be raised from the special blessings enumerated, yet I shall briefly comprehend them all in the following:

Ob.i. 2. On those whom God loves and pardons, he pours forth the benediction of his grace and Spirit, as the dew of heaven, to quicken them to a holy and fruitful conversation. The promises set down in general terms before, “I will heal,” “I will love,” are here fui — ther amplified by many excellent metaphors, and elegant figures, nine in number, multiplied into so many particulars, partly because of the difficulty attendant on the belief of the promise; partly because of the dejected state of the people under the variety of their foiTner sufi’erings, who are therefore by variety of mercies to be raised up and revived; and partly to represent the perfection and completeness of the blessings intended, which should be of all sorts, and suited to all purposes. The foundation of all the rest is this, that God promises to “be as the dew unto Israel:” for Ephraim having been cursed with much drought and barrenness, when God blesses him again, he promises to be to him as dew is to the weary and thirsty ground, which so refreshes it that the fruits thereof grow and flomish again. Lilies, flowers, trees, vines, corn, are very apt (especially in such hot countries as Judea) without much refreshing dew and showers from heaven, to dry up and wither away: so would Ephraim have been quite consumed by the heavy wrath of God, unless revived by the heavenly refreshments of his grace and Holy Spirit.

But we shall proceed now to consider the words themselves.

“I will be as the dew unto Israel.” SsnwS SB3n<n« Dew, in its natural signification, imports a comforting, refreshing, and encouraging, a calling forth the fruits of the earth, by gently and insensibly insinuating itself into the ground; and in that sense is mentioned as a blessing. Gen. xxvii. 39: in its mystical and spiritual sense, it signifies Christ, Psal. lxxii. 6; who by his holy word and hea- chryso. m p.a venly grace, dropping down and distilling on the souls of men, Deut. xxxii. 2; Job sxix. 22, 23; by his princely favour and lo’ing countenance, which “is as a cloud of the latter rain,” Prov. xvi. 15; xix. 12: by his heavenly righteousness, and most spiritual efficacy, Isa. xxvi. 19; slv. 8; so quickens, vegetates, and revives the hearts of men, that they, like dew “from the womb of the morning,” are born in great abundance to him, as multitudes of men and behevera ai’e wont to be expressed in the Scripture by drops of dew, Psal. ex. 3; Micah v. 7. In one word, all that which dew is) to the fields, gardens, vineyards, flowers, fruits of the earth, after a hot and scorching day, the favour, word, grace, loving countenance, and Holy Spuit of Christ, will be to the drooping and afiiicted consciences of his people.

From this metaphor then we learn,

1. That we are naturally drj’, barren, fruitless, and utterly unable to do any good, to bring forth anv fruit unto God; like a heathy and parched land, subject to the scorching terrors of the wrath of God, and to his burning indignation. So Christ compai’es Jerusalem to a drj’, withered tree, fitted for judgment, Luke xxiii. 31; and he assures us that out of him we can do nothing, John xv. 4, 5. In us of ourselves there dwelleth “no good thing,” Kom. vii. 1«; we are not of om-selves, as of ourselves, sufficient to any thing, 2 Cor. iii. 5: he is the sun that heals us, Mai. iv. 2; the rain that fertilizes us, Psal. lxxii. 6; the root from which we derive life and nourishment. Rev. xxii. 16. As natural, so much more spiritual, fruitfulness, has its ultimate reso-THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA.

lution into him, who alone is the father of the rain, and begetteth the drops of dew, Hos. ii. 21, 22; Job xxxviii. 28.

2. That the grace of God is like dew to the baiTen and parched hearts of men, to make them fruitful. There are many things wherein the resemblance stands.

1. None can give it but God; it comes from above, it is of celestial origin, the nativity thereof is from ‘• the womb of the morning,” Psal. ex. 3. “Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain, or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Lord our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things,” Jer. xiv. 22. And the like we may say in a more strict and peculiar sense of regeneration, that it is a spu’itual and heavenly bii-th; it is “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the wUl of man, but of God;” there is no concurrence or active assistance of the flesh, or of any natural abilities, to a birth which is merely spiritual, John i. 13; iii. 5, 6; James i. 17, 18. Therefore Christ was pleased to go up into heaven, before he shed forth his Holy Spirit in abundance on the church, John vii. 39; xvi. 7; Acts i. 4, 5; to teach us that our conversion and sanctification come from above,* by a Divine teaching, by a spiritual conviction, by a supernatural and omnipotent traction, by a heavenly calling, by the will of him who alone can give a will to us: no voice can be heard by those that are dead, but “the voice of the Son of God,” John v. 25; vi. 44, 45; xvi. 8 — 11; James i. 18; Phil. ii. 13; Heb. iii. 1; xii. 25: and withal to acquaint us whither the affections and conversations of men thus sanctified should tend, namely, to heaven, as every thing works towards its original, and every part inclines to the whole. Col. iii. 1, 2; Phil. iii. 20. In allusion to this metaphor of dew or rain, the Holy Spuit is said to be poured out upon the churches. Acts ii. 17; Tit. iii. 6. And the word of grace is frequently compared to rain. As it is the seed by which we are enabled to be fruitful. Matt. xiii. 19, so it is the rain which softens the heart, that it may be the better wrought on by that seminal virtue, Isa. Iv. 10, 11; Heb. vi. 7; whereas false teachers are called “clouds without water,” Jude 12, they have no ’ fructifying virtue in them. None can give grace but God; it is heavenly in its nature, therefore it is so in its original; it “tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men,” Micah v. 7: it depends not on the wills, concm-rences, preparations, or dispositions which arise out of us, but it wholly prevents us; we are made active by it, but we are not at all antecedently active in fitting or disposing ourselves for it.

2. It is the fruit of a serene, clear, and ithJlcaMo^Pii quiet heaven; for dew never falls either cap’s”’’’ ™’ ‘*■ ™ scorching or in tempestuous weather, as philosophers have observed. In like manner, the grace, favour, and blessings of God, are the fruits of his reconciled affection towards us: upon the wicked he rains storm and tempest, he showers down on them the fury of his wrath, and shows himself dark, cloudy, gloomy, terrible unto them, Psal. xi. 6; lxxxiii. 15; Job xx. 23; Nab. i. 3, 8; but unto those that fear his name he opens a clear and a gracious countenance, and, being reconciled to them, sheds abroad his love into their hearts, and his peace into their consciences, like Gideon’s dew on the fleece and on the ground, as a special evidence of his grace: and therefore the psalmist compares the love and peace that is amongst brethren unto dew, which ever falleth from a calm, serene, and quiet sky, Psal. cxxxiii. 3.

3. It is abundant and innumerable. Who can number the drops of dew on the ground, or the hairs of

* Ita docet lit quod quisque didicerit, non tantum cognoscendo videat sed etiam volendo appetat, agendoque pcrhciat. Aug. de Grat. Christ, cap. 14. 24. et cont. 2. Epist. Pelag. lib.

little rain? (for so they are called in the original, Dl*yu’3 because of their smallness and number, Deut. xxxii. 2.) So Hushai expresses the multitudes of all Israel, 2 Sam. xvii. 12, “We will light upon him as the dew falleth on the ground.” And the multitudes of believers are said to be born unto Christ by his sending forth the rod of his strength, as dew “from the womb of the morning,” Psal. ex. 3, which we find verified. Acts ii. 41; v. 14, 16; vi. 7; ix. 31, 42; xix. 20. Such is the grace and favour of God to his people after their conversion; unsearchable, it cannot be comprehended or measured, nor brought under any number or account, Psal. lxxi. 15; cxxxix. 17, 18. Christ is compared to manna: he was the bread that came down from heaven, John vi. 50, 51; and manna came in mighty abundance, so that there was enough for every one to gather, Exod. xvi. 16. It had dew under it, and dew over it, as we may conjecture by comparing Exod. xvi. 14, with Numb. xi. 9; whereunto ‘the Holy Ghost seems to allude when he speaks of “the hidden manna,” Rev. ii. 17; though that ^“paglPitfrn’^’ may likewise refer to the pot of manna which was kept in the tabernacle, Exod. xvi. 32, 33; Heb. ix. 4; as our life is said to be hid with Christ, now he is in heaven. Col. iii. 3. By this dew coming along with manna, is intimated, that the mercies of God in Christ, his daily mercies, (which are said, with allusion, I suppose, to this manna, to be “new every morning,” Lam. iii. 23,) and his hidden mercies, to wit, the inward comforts of his grape and Spuit, are all innumerable and past finding out. We may say of his mercies, as the psalmist of his commandments, “I have seen an end of all perfection,” but these thy mercies are “exceeding broad;” more than eye hath seen, or ear heard, or the heart itself is able to comprehend, Psal. cxix. 96; 1 Cor. ii. 9.

4. It is silent, slow, insensible; while it is falling you cannot say. Here it is: it deceives the eye, it is too subtle to be discerned by it: it deceives the ear, it is too silent for that to hear it: it eludes the touch, and is too thin and spiritual to be apprehended. You see it when it is come, but you cannot obsei’ve how it comes. In this manner was God pleased to fill the world with the knowledge of his gospel, and with the grace of his Spirit; by quiet, small, contemptible, and, as it were, insensible means. “The kingdom of God Cometh not th observation,” that is, with any visible, notable splendour, or external pomp, (as the Jews expected the Messiah to come,) but it came with spiritual efficacy, and with internal power on the consciences of men, and spread itself over the world by the ministry of a vei-y few despised instruments, Luke xvii. 20, 21; with respect to which manner of working the Spirit is compared to wind, which we hear and feel, but cannot tell “whence it cometh, and whither it goeth,” John iii. 8. The operations of grace on the conscience are secret, and sUent; you shall find mighty changes wrought, and shall not tell how they were wi’ought; the same man coming into the church one hour a swine, a dog, a lion, and going out the next in all visible respects the same, but invisibly changed into a lamb.

5. It is of a soft and benign nature, which gently insinuates and works itself into the ground, and by degrees moistens and mollifies it, that it may be fitted to the seed which is cast into it. In like manner the Spirit, the grace, the word of God, is of a searching, insinuating, softening quality; it sinks into the heart, and works itself into the conscience, and from thence makes way for itself into the whole man, mind, thoughts, affections, words, actions, fitting them all unto the holy seed that is put into them: as the earth, being softened

1. cap. 19, 20. Vocatio alta et secreta. Epist. 107. Bernard. Sermon. Parv. serm. 66.

and mingled with the dew, is the more easily drawn up into those varieties of herbs and fruits which it maintains.

G. It is of a vegetating and quickening nature, it causes things to grow and revive again; therefore the prophet calls it “the dew of herbs,” Isa. xxvi. 19, which are thereby refreshed, and recover life and beauty: even so the word and Spirit of gi-ace, distilling upon the soul, as small rain upon lender herbs, and as showers on the grass, cause it to live the life of God, and to bring forth the fruits of holiness and obedience, Isa. Iv. 10, 11. Those parts of the world which are under either perpetual frosts, or perpetual scorchings, are barren and fruitless, the earth being closed up, and the sap thereof dried away by such distempers. Such is the condition of a soul under wrath, that has no apprehensions of God but in frost or fire j for “who can stand before his cold?” Psal. cxlvii. 17; who can “dwell with everlasting burnings?” Isa. xxxiii. 14. Fear contracts and binds up the powers of the soul; more than any other affection it indisposes to regidar action. But when the soul can apprehend God as love, find healing in his wings, and reviving in his ordinances, this love is of an opening and expansive quality, calling forth the heart to duty; love within, as it were, hastening to meet and close with love without, the love of obedience in us, with the love of favour and grace in God. I shut and bar my door against an enemy whom I fear, and look upon as armed to hurt me; but I open wide my door, my bosom, to a friend whom I love, and look upon as furnished with counsel, and comfort, and benefits to revive me. There is a kind of mutual love between dew and the earth; dew loves the earth with a love of beneficence, doing it good, and earth loves dew with a love of concupiscence, earnestly desiring and opening unto it. Such is the love between Christ and the soul, when he appears as dew to it; he visits the soul with a love of mercy, reviving it, and the soul puts forth itself towards him in a love of duty, earnestly coveting as well to serve as to enjoy him.

7. It is of a refreshing and comforting nature, tempering the heat of those hotter countries, and so causing the face of things to flourish with beauty and delight. So God promises to be to his people in their troubles “like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest,” Isa. xviii. 4. The spiritual joy and heavenly comfort which the peace and grace of God ministers to the consciences of believers, Ilom. xv. 13; v. 1; Phil. iv. 4; 1 Pet. i. 8, is said to make the “bones flourish like an herb,” Isa. lxvi. 14. (.ls, on the other side, of “a broken S])irit” it is said, that it “drieth the bones,” Prov. xvii. 22.) “Their soul” (saith the prophet) “shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more. I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow,” Jer. xxxi. 12, 13.

From all which we should learn, 1. To be sensible of our own personal and spiritual dryness, barrenness, emptiness of fruit and peace, hard hearts, withered consciences, guilty spirits, under oiu” own particular sins; so in regard of the whole land, to take notice of that tempest of wrath, which, like an east wind out of the wilderness, drieth up our springs, and spoileth our treasures, as the prophet complains, Hos. xiii. 15, IG; and to be humbled into ])enitent resolutions, as the church here is. If God, who was wont to be as dewto our nation, who made it heretofore like a paradise and a watered goi-den, be now to it as a tempest, as a consuming fire, turning things upside down, burning up the innabitantji of the earth, causing our land to mourn, and our joy to wither, Joel i. 12, this is an evident sign, that “the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof,” Isa. xxiv. 4, 5. Therefore as our sins have turned om- dew into blood, so our repentance

must turn our blood into dew again. If ever we look to have a happy peace, we must make it with God: men can give peace only to our bodies, our fields, our houses, our pui-ses, (nor that neither without his overruling power and providence, who alone manages all the counsels and resolutions of men,) but he alone can give peace to our consciences by the assurance of his love, which is “better than life.” And if there should be peace in a nation, made up only by human prudence and correspondences, without public repentance, and thorough reformation in church, in state, in families, in persons, in judgment, in manners, it would be but like those short interims between the Egyptian plagues, Exod. viii. 15; ix. 34; a respiting only, not a removing of our affliction; like the shining of the sun on Sodom, before the fire and brimstone fell upon it, Gen. xix. 23, 24. M’e all cry and call for peace, and, while any thing is left, would gladly pay dear, very dear, to recover it. But there is no sure and lasting purchase of it, but by unfeigned repentance and turning to God; this is able to give peace in the midst of war. In the midst of storm and tempest, Christ is sufficient security to the tossed ship. Matt. viii. 24, 27. “This man” is “the peace” oven “when the Assyrian” is in the ‘’ land,” Micah v. 5. AMiereas impenitence, even when we have recovered an outward peace, leaves us still in the midst of most potent enemies; God, Christ, angels, Scripture, creatures, conscience, sins, curses, all these are arrayed against us. The apostle tells us, that lusts ‘• war against the soul,” 1 Pet. ii. 11. There is a strong emphasis in the word “soul,” the soul is more worth than all the world, nothing to be taken in exchange for it. Matt. xvi. 26. So long as we have our lusts unconquered, we arc under a war the most woeful, which spoils us not of our blood, our money, our com, our cattle, our houses, our children, but of the salvation of our immortal souls. Time will repair the ruins of other wars, but eternity itself will not deliver’ that poor soul which has fallen in the wars of lust.

Therefore, if you would have peace as a mercy, get it from God, let it be a dew from heaven on your conversion to him. A “king’s favour” is said to be as “dew upon the grass,” Prov. xix. 12, and as “a cloud of the latter rain,” Prov. xvi. 15; and it would with all joyfulness be so apprehended, if by that means the blessing of peace were bestowed on these distressed kingdoms. How much more comfortable would it be to have it as a gift from God to a repenting nation! For God can give peace in anger, as well as war. A ship at sea may be distressed by a calm, as well as broken by a tempest. The cattle which we mean to kill, we fii-st prefer to some fat pasture: and sometimes God gives over punishing, not in mercy, but in fury; leaving men to go on quietly in their own hearts’ lusts, that they who are filthy may be filthy still, Psal. lxxxi. 12; Hos. iv. 14, 17; Isa. i. 5; Ezek. xxiv. 13. God was exceedingly angry with Israel when he gave them their hearts’ desire, in sending them quails, Numb. xi. 32, 33. Many men get their desires from God’s anger by raurmurnig, as others do theirs from his mercy by prayer; but then a curse attends them. Now therefore, when our own sword devours us, when our land is, “through the wrath of the Lord of hosts,” so darkened, that “the people” thereof are “as fuel of the fire,” “no man” sparing “his brother,” “every man” eating “the flesh of his own arm,” (the sad character which the projjhet gives of a civil war, Isa. ix. 1!>, 20.) let us take heed of God’s complaint, “In vain have I smitten your children, they received no correction,” Jer. ii. 30. Let us make it our business to recover God. It is he that “maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth,” Psal. xlvi. 9. And it is he who poureth out upon men “the strength of battle,” and givcth them “for a spoil” “to the robbers,” Isa. xlii.

6G1

24, 25. A sinful nation gains nothing by any human treaties, policies, counsels, contributions, till by repentance they secure their interest in God, and get him on their side. God being prevailed with by Moses in behalf of Israel, after the horrible provocation of the golden calf, sends a message to them: ‘■ I ;vill send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite — unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee.” And presently there follows in the next verse, “When the people heard these evil tidings they mourned,” Exod. xxxiii. 2 — 4. What were “these evil tidings?” to have an angel to protect and lead them? to have their enemies vanquished? to have possession of a land flowing with milk and honey? was there any thing lamentable in all this? Yes; to have all this and much more, and not to have God and his presence, was heavy tidings to God’s people. And therefore Moses ceased not to plead with God till he pi’omised them his own presence again, with which !Moses chose rather to stay in a wilderness, than without it to go into the land of Canaan; “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence,” Exod. xxxiii. 13 — 15.

2. Whatever our spiritual wants are, to look up to heaven for a supply of them. Neither gardens, nor woods, nor vineyards, nor fields, nor flowers, nor trees, nor com, nor spices, will flourish or revive without the clew and concuxTence of heavenly grace. Christ alone is “all and in all” to his church: though the instruments be earthly, yet the vu’tue which gives success to them comes from heaven. We shall thus consider the succeeding metaphors, as connected with and dependent on him who is emphatically “the dew” unto his spiritual “Israeh”

“He shall grow as the lily.” njaiwa mS’ The beauty of the Kly, or, as the prophet David calls it, “the beauties of holiness,” arise from “the dew of the morning,” Psal. ex. 3. He is the ornament, the attire, the comeliness of his spouse. For his people to forget him, is for “a maid” to “forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire,” Jer. ii. 32. The perfect beauty of the church, is that comeliness of his which he communicates to her, Ezck. xvi. 14. Of ourselves we are “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;” our “gold,” our riches, our “white raiment,” we must buy of him, Sev. iii. 17, IS. He is the Lord our righteousness, whom therefore we are said to put on, Rom. xiii. 14. He has “made us unto our God kings and priests,” Rev. v. 10; and being such, he has provided beautiful robes for us, as once he appointed for the priests, Exod. xxviii. 2; Rev. iv. 4; vi. 11; vii. 9. This spu-itual beauty of holiness in Christ’s church, is sometimes compared to the marriage ornaments of a queen, Psal. xlv. 14; Rev. xix. 7, 8; xxi. 2; sometimes to the choice flowers of a garden, roses and lilies, Eiqiin-dirisabeatos Cant. ii. 1, 2; sometimes to a most gloff’ii’“”’; coiiccta rious and goodly structure, Rev. xxi. 10 — 27; sometimes to the shining forth of the moon, and the brightness of the sun. Cant. vi. 10; Rev. xii. 1. All the united excellencies of the creatures are too low to adumbrate and figure the glories of the church.

“And cast forth his roots as Lebanon.” vwnv? n’l ^iJsVa The root and stability of the church is in and li-om him; he is “the Root of David,” Rev. v. 5. Except he dwell in us, we can neither be rooted nor grounded, Eph. iii. 17. All our strength and sufficiency is from him, Phil. iv. 13; Eph. vi. 10 j 1 Pet. v. 10.

* Pallium auJi dicentem, Petra autem erat Christus. Aug. in Psal. Ix. Super hanc Petram quam confessus es, super hauc Petram quam cognovisti dicens, Tu es Christus Filius Dei vivi, adificabo ecclesiam meam. De Verbis Dom. serm. 1.3. Quid est super hanc Petram? Super hanc tidem: super id quod dictum est, Tues Christus Filius Dei. Tract. lU in Epist.

The graft is supported bj’ another root, and not by its own. This is the reason of the stability of the church, because it is founded on a rock. Matt. xvi. 18; not on Peter,* but on him whom Peter confessed; on the apostles only doctrinally, but on Christ personally, as “the chief corner-stone, elect, precious,” in whom whosoever “believeth” “shall not be confounded,” Eph. ii. 20, 21; 1 Pet. ii. 6. This is the diflference between the righteousness of creation and the righteousness of redemption; the state of the world in Adam, and the state of the church in Christ. Adam had his righteousness in his own keeping, and therefore when the power of hell set upon him he felkfrom his stedfastness; there was no promise given to him that “the gates of hell” should “not prevail against” him; being of an earthly constitution he had corruptibility, mutability, infirmity belonging to him from the very principles of his being. But Christ, the Second Adam, is “the Lord from heaven,” over whom death has neither claim nor power; and the righteousness and stability of the church are founded on, and have their original in, him. The powers of darkness must be able to evacuate the virtue of his sacrifice, to stop God’s ears to his intercession, to repel and keep back the supplies and influences of his Spirit, to keep or recover possession against his ejectment, in one word, to thrust him away from the right hand of the Majesty on high, and to kill him again, before ever they can overthrow his church. As Plato compared a man, so may we the church, to a tree inverted, with the root above and the branches below. And the root of this tree not only serves to give life to the branches while they abide in it, but to hold them fast that none can prevail to cut them ofi’, John x. 28, 29.

“His branches shall spread.” vnipjv isS’ The growth and spreading abroad of the branches of the church, is from him whose name is “the Branch,” Isa. xi. 1; Zech. iii. 8. To him “the uttermost parts of the earth” are given for a “possession,” and all “the kingdoms of this world are” to “become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ,” Psal. ii. 8; Rev. si. 15. In regard of his first dispensation towards Israel, God’s first-born, the land of Canaan is pecuharly called Immanuel’s land, Isa. viii. 8. But in regard of his latter dispensation, when he sent “the rod of his strength out of Zion,” and went forth conquering and to conquer, and gave commission to preach the gospel to every creature, the whole world is now, under the gospel, become Immanuel’s land, and he is “the King of all the earth,” Psal. xlvii. 7; “King of kings, and Lord of lords,” Rev. xix. 16. “The Gentiles” “come” in to the “light” of his church, and “kings to the brightness of” her “rising;” and “the nation and kingdom that will not serve” her “shall perish; yea, those nations .shall be utterly wasted,” Isa. Ix. 3, 12. Now every country is Canaan, and every Christian church the Israel of God, and every regenerate person born in Zion, and every spiritual worshipper the circumcision; now Christ is crucified in Galatia, and a passover eaten in Corinth, and manna fed on in Pergamos, and an altar set up in Eg)-pt, and Gentiles sacrificed, and stones made childi’en unto Abraham and temples unto God: see John iv. 21; Mai. i. 11; Zeph. ii. 11; Gal. vi. 16; Isa. xiv. 1; xliv. 5; Zech. viii. 23; Rom. ii. 29; Psal. lxxxvii. 4, 5; Phil. iii. 3; Col. ii. 11; Gal. iii. 1; 1 Cor. v. 7, 8; Rev. ii. 17; Isa. xix. 19, 21, 23; Rom. xv. 16; Luke iii. 8; Eph.ii. 21. In Christ’s former dispensation the church was only

1. Joann. Felix fidei petra, Petri ore confesso, Tu es Christus Fibus Dei. Hilar, de Trin. lib. 2. Super hauc confessionis Petram, Ecclesia; sedificatio est. lib. 6. ‘Eiri TauTij t tte- •rpa, TowriaTL rr; irta-Ttt ts ouoKoyia. Chrj’sost. in loc. Vid. Isid. Pel. lib. 1. Ep. 2.33. Casaub. Exercitat. ad Annal Eccles. 15. c. 12 et 1-3. Sixt. Seneu. 1. G. Annot. 6S, 69

national, amongst the Jews; hut in his latter dispensation it is oecumenical and universal, over all tlic world; a spreading tree, under the shadow of the branches whereof “shall dwell all fowl of every wing,” Ezek. xvii. 2.3.

“And his beauty shall be as the olive tree.” »n*l lim r>13 The graces of the Holy Spirit wherewith the church is anointed are from him. He is Som mii? vl rtu- “‘’^’”^ *’’*^*^ which empties the golden tun. rticieniUruin qU out of himself, Zcch. iv. 12. Of his caiiet injfnio, si fulness WB all Teceivc grace for grace, ql!SmortbiiVi»trt, John i. IG. AVith the same Spirit are we in’c.ntifSriSr’’ anointed, animated by the same life, regenerated to the same nature, renewed into the same image, reserved unto the same inheritance, dignified in some respect with the same offices, made priests to offer spiritual sacrifices, and kings to subdue spiritual enemies, and prophets to receive teaching from God, and to have a duplicate of his law written in our hearts, 2 Cor. i. 21; John xiv. 19; 1 Cor. XV. 48, 49; Rom. viii. 17; 1 Pet. ii. 5; Rev. i. 6; John vi. 45; Jer. xxxi. .33.

“And his smell as Lebanon.” ^iJsSs lS n-tl The sweet perfume and scent or smell of Lebanon, which arises out of holy duties, the grace which drops from the lips of his people, the spiritual incense which arises out of their prayers, the sweet savour of the gospel which spreads itself abroad in the ministry of his word and in the lives of his servants, they have all their origin in him, and from his heavenly “dew. Of ourselves, without him, as we are altogether unclean, Psal. xiv. 3; Prov. xiii. 5, so we defile every holy thing with which we meddle. Hag. ii. 13, 14; Prov. xxviii. 9; Isa. i. 11 — 15; insomuch that God saith, “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies,” Amos v. 21; they are all of them, as they come from us, “gall and wormwood,” “their clusters are bitter,” Deut. xxix. 18; xxxii. 32. But when the Spirit of Christ blows upon us, and his grace is poured into our hearts and lips, then the spices flow out, Cant. iv. 16; then prayer goes up like incense and sweet odours, Rev. v. 8; then, instead of corrupt, rotten, contagious communication, our discoui’ses tend to edifying, and “minister grace to the hearers,” Eph. iv. 29; then the savour of the knowledge of Christ manifests itself in the mouths and lives of his servants in every place where they come, 2 Cor. ii. 14.

“They that dwell under his shadow shall retiurn.” ^S»3 ‘sr* 13»’ The shadow and refreshment, the refuge and shelter, of the church against storm and tempests against rain and heat, against all trouble and persecution, is from him alone. He is the only defence and covering that is over the assemblies and glory of Zion, Isa. iv. 5. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower,” into which “the righteous” run and are “safe,” Piov. xviii. 10. So the Lord promises, when his people should be exiles from his temple and scattered out of their own land, that he would himself be “a little sanctuary” to them in the countries where they should come, Ezek. xi. 16. He is a “dwelling place” to his church in all conditions, Psal. xc. 1; xci. 1, 2; “a strength to the needy,” “a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat,” “an hiding-])lace from the wind,” “a covert from the tempest,” ‘• a chamber” wherein to retire when indignation is kindled, Isa, XXV. 4; xxvi. 20; xxxii. 2. Everj- history of God’s power, every promise of his love, every observa-

Mcdicamenta quasdam priiis afflimnt ut sanent, ct ipsa collyria nisi sensum videmli priusclauilant, prodesse non pus-Bunt. .■Vug. Qu. in Matth. qu. 14. Quo tcrrcri deberct, illo

ipio rccreolur conlumcliam tenet curalionis pignus, &c.

Scult. cap. 42. Observat. in iMatth. dc Mulicrc Syropha-nissa. Plures etncimur quuties metimur. Tertul. Apol. cap. ult.

tion and experience of his providence, every comfort in his word, the knowledge which we have of his name by faith, and the knowledge which we have of it by experience, are so many arguments to trust in him, and so many hiding-places in which to flee unto him against any trouble. ““Whstt time I am afraid, I will trust in thee,” Psal. lvi. 3. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God,” Psal. xhi. 5, 11. He “delivered,” he “doth deliver,” he “will deliver,” 2 Cor. i. 10. Many times the children of God are reduced to such extremities, that they have nothing wherewith to encourage themselves but their interest in him; nothing to flee to for hope but his great name, made known to them by faith in his promises, and by experience of his goodness, power, and providence. This was David’s case at Ziklag, 1 Sam. xxx. 6; Israel’s at the Red Sea, Exod. xiv. 10, 13; Jonah’s in the belly of the fish, Jonah ii. 4, 7; and Paul’s in the shipwreck, .lets xxvii. 20, 25. God is never so much glorified by the faith of his servants, as when they can maintain their trust in him against sight and sense; and when reason saith, Thou art undone, for all help fails thee, can answer in faith, I am not undone, “for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” Heb. xiii. 5.

“They shall renve as the corn, and gi-ow as the vine.” pj3 inns’i pn vn’ The power which the church has to rise up above her pressures, to outgrow her troubles, to revive after lopping and harrowing, to make use of* affliction as a means to flourish again, all this is from him. That in trouble we are riot overwhelmed, but can say with the apostle, “As t dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things;” like the corn which dies and is quickened again; like the vine that is lopped and spreads again; all this is from him who is “the resurrection, and the life,” John xi. 25; who was that grain of wheat, which dying, and being cast into the ground, brought forth much fruit, John xii. 24; the Branch which grew out of the roots of Jesse, when that goodly family was sunk so low as from David the king to Joseph the carpenter, Isa. xi. 1.

“The scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.” ljaS ^“3 As God is the author of all these blessings to his people, so when he bestows them he does it in perfection; the fruits which this dew produces are as the fruits of Lebanon, most choice and excellent. If he plant a vineyard, it shall be in “a very fruitful hill,” and with “the choicest vine,” Isa. v. 1, 2; “a noble vine, wholly a right seed,” Jer. ii. 21. AVlien in any kind of straits we have recourse to the creature for supply, either we find it like our Saviour’s fig tree, without fruit, or like our projihet’s vine, as good as empty, the fruits thereof not worth the gathering, Hosi X. 1. “Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter,” Deut. xxxii. 32; full of vanity, vexation, disappointment. Friends fail either in their love, or in their power; people cry Hosanna to-dav, and Crucify to-morrow. “Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree a lie.” Counsels clash, or are puzzled with intricacies and unhapjiy obstacles, like the wheels in Ezekiel’s vision, that seem hampered in one another. .lrmies, like Reuben, “unstable as water,” now rise, I)rcsently ebb and sink away. Treasures, like the mountains out of which they were first digged, barren and fruitless, fuel rather to feed our sins than water to

THE PROPHECT OF HOSK.

qiiencli our flames; matter of prey to the wicked, more than of help to the miserable. In one word, take any creature-helps in the world, and there will be something, nay, Ter- much, of defect in them. All existence but God’s is mixed with non-existence; and as every man, so every creature besides, is a liar, like Job’s brook, (or friends which he compares thereto,) that vanishes into nothing when there is most need of it. Job vi. 15 — IS: a liar, either by way of perfidiousness, which promises and then deceives: or by way of impotence, which undertakes and then miscarries. But whenever God promises and undertakes to bless any man or any people, he can-ies on his work to perfection; his blessings are all milk and honey, dew and fatness, wine and oit the fruits of Lebanon, full of sweetness and maturity. He perfects that which he begins concerning his se’rvants, Psal. cxxxviii. 8; Phil. i. 6. There doth “not one thing” fail “of all the good things” he speaks concerning his people; they all come to pass, and not one faileth, Josh, xxiii. 14. The riches which are gotten by human lusts and sinful resolutions are attended with many and piercing sorrows, 1 Tim. vi. 10: but when God blesses a man with riches, he takes away all the soitow from it, Prov. s. 22. The gifts of God are all of them like his works, “very good,” Gen. i. 31; and bring after them into the soul a sabbath, a rest, and peace.

3. We should from hence further learn, to show forth the fruits of this heavenly dew, agreeably to the scope of the several metaphors which the prophet here uses, drawn from the consideration of a garden, forest, fruitful field; similitudes frequently used by the Holy Spirit, to denote the beauty, sweetness, fruit, comfort, shelter, protection, which the church of Christ affords to its members. Isa. xxxv. 1, 2; lviii. 11; Cant. iv. 12, 16; vi. 2; (as, on the other side, the wicked are compared to a dry desert, and baiTen wilderness, Isa. xxxv. 6, 7; xli. 18;’ Jer. xvii. 6;) and as these are promises in regard of God, and so matter of comfort, they are duties with respect to us, and so matter of obedience. He promises,

1. That his people shall “grow as the digniusutHomenis UIv,” which is the most bcautlful of all ^Ttlffp“^.”!^ flowers, Matt. vi. 28. 29; that they shall pcsuk. Tid. piin. |jg gloriously clothed, like a king’s daugh-Lb. 21. cap. !. °.,, * *.. i i

ter, wnth the garments of praise, and the spirit of holiness, Isa. lxi. 3; set forth by various metaphors of broidered work, and fine linen, and silk, and ornaments, and bracelets, and chains, and jewels, and crowns, Ezek. xvi. 8 — 13.

And as it is his promise, so it ought to be our duty and endeavour to adorn the gospel of Christ, to be in his garden as a lily, and not as a nettle or bramble; to walk as becometh godliness; to let oui light shine before men, that they may be won to admire the amiableness of the Lord’s tabernacle, and glorifj- God in the hour of their visitation; to be as light.s in the midst of a crooked generation, PhU. ii. 15, or as “the lily among thorns,” Cant. ii. 2; to make it appear that spiritual wisdom causes the “face to shine,” Eccl. viii. 1; that holiness is indeed a most beautiful thing, which commends us to the eyes of God and angels; a robe worn by du-ist the King of saints, and by which we are made like to him who is “the chiefest among ten thousand.’’ and “altogether lovely,’’ Cant. v. 10, 16. AVe should take heed of any thing whereby our holy profession may be blemished, and the name of God through us defiled: of such levity as is inconsistent with the majesty of holiness; such morosity as is inconsistent with the meekness of holiness; such drooping as is inconsistent with the joy of holiness; such stiffiiess and sourness as are inconsistent with the lenity of holi-

Koi Kpsfiom TTOTL vi)6v ‘AiroWwi’os kKCLTaio. Horn. II. tj.

ness. In one word, we should labour by the innocence, purity, elegance, fragrance, fruitfulness; by the winning ingenuity, the mild and humble condescension, the pnident insinuation, the meek, quiet, and graceful demeanour of a holy life; to “show forth the praises of him that hath caHsd” us, and to “put to silence the ignorance of foolish men,” who, like the fold, pretend to despise beauty, like dogs, bay at the shining of the moon, and “speak evil of those things which they know not,” Jude 10.

2. That his church should “cast forth” her “I’oots as Lebanon.” Though she should have the beauty of the lily, yet she should be freed from its frailness, its aptness to fade and wither, beautiful to-day, to-morrow drooping to death. But she should have „,. ... ,. .„ stabihty like the cedar, which is one of Th«.phrast Hist, the strongest of trees, and least subject

to decay: therefore is the church compared to it, Ezek. xvii. 22, 23, and the temple said to be built of it, 1 Kings vi. 15, 16, to signify- the strength and duration of the church, against which the gates of hell should not prevail. And we may by the way observe, that most of the things here mentioned by our prophet, are also noted to have been in the temple, or in its services: lilies, 1 Kings vii. 19, 22, 26; olive trees, 1 Kings vi. 23, 32, 33; spices for incense, wheat and oil for meat-oflerings, wine for diink-offerings. Gad thus furnishes his people with those blessings which may be most properly dedicated to him,* teaching us, as often as we receive any gifts fi-om him, presently to inquii-e what relation they have to his temple, how his name may be honoured, how his church may be served, how his gospel may be furthered, how his people may be edified and comforted by them, how all oiu: enjoyments may be divided as spoils to Christ: the power of great men, Isa. Ix. 3; the swords of mighty men, 1 Sam. sviii. 17, 25, 27; Judg. vii. 18; the wisdom of learned men, 1 Kings iii. 9, 28; the cunning of craftsmen. Esod. xxviii. 3; xxxi. 6; the wealth of rich men, Isa. xxiii. 18: Prov. iii. 9; Psal. xlv. 12; Isa. Ix. 6, 9; 1 Tim. vi. 17 — 19. Abraham gave of the spoils to ^lelchizedek, Heb. vii. 4; and Israel of all their wealth to the tabernacle, Exod. xxxv. 21; and David and his people of their treasure to the temple, 1 Chron. xxix. 2.

And as it is his promise, that the church should thus take root, 2 Kings xix. 30; Jer. xvii. 8; so we should account it our duty to be firm, stable, constant, “unmovable” in the truth, and “in the work of the Lord,” as “a house “‘• founded upon a rock;” to stand “rooted and built up” in the truth, that we may “hold fast the profession” thereof “without wavering,” not being “carried about with every wind of doctrine,” but knowing whom and what we have believed, 1 Cor. svi. 13; Eph. iv. 14; Col. ii. 7; Heb. x. 23; to “stand fast,” “being rooted and grounded in” the “love” of God, that we may be “sti-engthened with might” in his service, and may- with “purpose of heart” cleave unto him, being established by his grace, Eph. iii. 17; Col. i. 11; Heb. xii. 28; xiii. 9. In the civil law, tni a tree has taken root, it does not be- kt’SS^oX i. long to the soil on which it is planted. lartim’ca»Smn?L3. So it is not enough to be in the chm’ch, i.s-Cod.deiUiTiiiexcept, like ‘• a cedai- m Lebanon, we “cast forth” our “roots,” and are so “planted” that we “flourish in the courts of our God,” and “bring forth fruit in old age,” Psal. xcii. 12 — 14.

3. That the chm-ch should spread forth her branches, and fill the earth, and grow to a great compass and extent, that she should send out “her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river,” Psal. lxxx. 8 — 1 1; Dan. ii. 35; that his church should be a universal

Spolia in templis suspeuilere antiqiii moris erat. Cic. de Nat. Deor. hb. 2. Liv lib. 10. Virgil. iEn. 7.

church over the whole world; that as, in regard of sin,

the whole world lieth in the wicked one, 1 John. 19,

BO it should have Christ for its propitiation, through

faith, 1 John ii. 2. Totus in maligno
Aug. Epist. 48. ‘.. y-,,., •, ,• °

propter zizanta, Lnrislus propttiattopropter t’riticum.” By one Spirit are we all baptized into

one body,” 1 Cor. xii. 13; and that one body made up

of “all churches of the saints,” 1 Cor. xiv. 33, even

of “all nations, and kindi-ed, and people, and tongues,”

Kev. vii. 9: no difference of persons,” neither Greek

nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian,

Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ all, and in all,”

Col. iii. 1 1; no difference of places,” all that in every

place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,

both theirs and ours,” 1 Cor. i. 2; no difference of

times,” Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day, and

for ever,” Heb. xiii. 8.

And as this is his promise, so we should endeavour,

1. To grow ourselves in knowledge and grace; to let our profiting appear unto all men; to abound in the work of the Lord; to let our graces from the heart, like leaven from the middle of the lump, spread abroad, and find their way to all the parts and powers of soul and body, that the whole man may be “filled with all the fulness of God,” and grow up “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Eph. iv. 13 — 16; Phil. iii. 12 — 14; 2 Pet. iii. 18; Heb. vi. 1.

2. To promote zealously the growth and progress of the gospel in others. This is the nature of grace, to manifest itself, and by that means to allure and gather others to its own quality. It is set forth in Scripture by the names of light, which shines abroad, of ointment and perfume, which cannot be hid, of leaven, and salt, which impart to other things their own nature and relish. Therefore the Holy Ghost was given in “tongues,” “tongues like as of fire,” with “a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind;” all which have a quality of self-manifestation, and are calculated to attract attention. There is an excellent place to this purpose in Eph. iv. 15, 16, “But speaking the truth in love, may gi’ow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working m the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body imto the edifj“- ing of itself in love.” The apostle thus illustrates the manner of spiritual increase in the mystical body of Christ by the proportion of the growth of members in the natural body, and thereby teaches us, that,

1. There must be a fellowship between the head and members, which, in the mystical body, is here spoken of as twofold, {I’e ain-bv, and e? oii; growing “into him,” and receiving “from” him; looking in this work of growth on Christ, first, as the end to which all that growth aspires; secondly, as the fountain from whence it proceeds; that by growing we may have a more intimate and strong communion with him, by that virtue which we receive from him. So here are two necessarj- requisites to this duty of cndeavoimng the “increase of the body,” to have Christ for our end to which we work, and for our fountain out of which we dcrile our ability of working. Every true member of Christ is intent and vigilant on the interest and honour of Christ; and it belongs to the honour of Christ to

have a perfect body. The church is his Scicl^M^!’ “fulness,” he esteems himself maimed

and incom])!ete if that should be finally deficient in any thing requisite to its integral perfection; and hence it is that every true Christian puts forth the uttermost of his endeavours in his place to cany on the “increase” of his Master’s body; as every true-hearted soldier is exceedingly desirous, and, according to his power, endeavours, that every company and regiment under his general’s command may be in all its

offices and members comjJete. Again, every member of Christ being to him united, from him receives of his fulness “grace for grace,” and so works to the same ends as the Head. And as the water which first rises out of the fountain, stands not stUl where it began, but goes forward till it grows into a gi’eat river; so those who are joined to Christ as a fountain, do, by reason of that vital communion which they have with the fountain, carry on the growth of the whole body; and the more vigorous the life of Christ is in any part, the more actively does that part work towards the edification of the whole.

2. A mutual communion of the members of the body within and amongst themselves: to which is fii’st presupposed, the organical and harmonious constitution and compacture of the body into one, out of which arise the form and beauty, the strength and fimmess, the order and fitness, that are in it to those works which are proper to it, intimated in those two words avvapfioXoyovfisvovj and ffv;i/5*/3a?6/i£1’ov, “fitly joined together and compacted.” It is a metaphor cb-awn from carpenters and other artificers, who, by several joints, so coaptate and fit the parts of their work to one another, that being put together pollniS’nilico.i-“’ and fastened, there may one whole struc- u„°uJS“”JJe„til’ tuT’e or body grow out of them; and in *“s„^’ ^’’”- “^’’Sthat body this accurate fitness and intimate connexion of the parts one with another, produce an excellent strength, a beautiful order, and a ready serviceableness of each part to the other, and of all to the whole. So Jerusalem is said to be as” a city that is compact together,” Psal. cxxii. 3; as the ark (a type of the church) had the ribs, and planks, and parts thereof so closely fastened into one another, that no water could get in; and as in the tabernacle, all the cui“tains thereof were to be coupled together, Exod. xxvi. 3. So Christ is all for unity, and joining things into one; two natures united in one person, two parties reconciled by one Mediator, two people concorporated into one church; one family, one Father, one seed, one Head, one faith, one hope, one love, one worship, one body, one Spti-it, one end, and one common salvation. Christ is not, loves not to be, divided, 1 Cor. i. 13. This is a fundamental requisite to the growth of the body, to the preservation of its unity. The building must be “fitly framed together,” if you would have it grow “unto an holy temple in the Lord,” Eph. ii. 21: Col. ii. 19. When there was most unity, there was the gi-eatest increase in the church; when they were all of “one accord,” of one heart, and one soul, then “the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved,” Acts ii. 46, 47. They that cause divisions and dissensions, do not serve the Lord Jesus, and therefore they cannot but hinder the progress of his gospel, Rom. xvi. 17, 18. As in the natural, so in the mystical body, soliitio cotilinuilalis tends to the paining and gi-ieving of that Spirit by which the body lives, and by consequence hinders its gx-owth, Eph. iv. 30, 31. Our growth is by the apostle distributed into growth “in knowledge,” and growth “in grace,” 2 Pet. iii. 18; and divisions in the church are of themselves great hinderanees to both these: to knowledge, because the most usual breaches in the church arise out of diversities of opinion publicly asserted and insisted on by their authors and followers. And though accidentally, where truth is embraced, it is held with more care, and searched into with more accurateness, because of the errors that oppose it (as the fire is hottest in the coldest weather); yet corrupt doctrine, being of the nature of a weed or canker, m spreading and corroding further and further, it must needs consequently binder the diffusion, and so the growth, of true knowledge. Nor does it less hinder the growth of grace; for while the people of God are all of one heart and of one way, then all theii’ communion

runs into this one design of mutually edifying, comforting, supporting, encouraging one another in their “most holy faith;” but when they are divided and broken into factions by different judgments, if there be not a great abundance of humility and spiritual wisdom, the spkits of men run out into heats and passions, into pcrrerse disputes, and mere notional contentions, which have ever been diminutions to the power of godliness, 1 Cor. iii. 3, 4. When there are schisms in the body, the members will not have care one of another, 1 Cor. xii. 25. Greatly Smi.’«!tfm’’s“d therefore, even for this one cause, are the qufd’Sfa S’duo’ ^^’1 ^”“l dangerous divisions of these «’”>^s sence. do tlmcs to be lamented, when men make”” ‘” use of civil ti-oubles to disturb, yea, to tear asunder, the unity of the church; when they set up, as in the times of the Donatists, altar against altar, and church against church, and make secessions from the common body, and then one from another, to the infinite content and advantage of the common enemies of our religion, and to the injury of religion itself. It were a blessed thing if we were in a condition conformable to the apostle’s exhortation, to “speak all the same thing,” to “be perfectly joined in the same mind and in the same judgment,” to “be of one mind,” and to “live in peace,” 1 Cor. i. 10; 2 Cor. xiii. 11. But if that cannot be attained to, let us yet all learn the apostle’s other lesson, wherein we arc “otherwise minded,” to depend upon God for revealing his will unto us; and whereto we have already attained, “to walk by the same rule,” to “mind the same thing,” to remember that every difference in opinion does not, ought not to dissipate or dissolve the unity of God’s church. Even in Corinth, where the people were divided into several parties, yet they continued “one church,” 1 Cor. xi. IS. The body thus constituted, and compacted for the increase thereof, presents these requisite characteristics.

1. Members severally distinct from one another, some principal, others ministerial, all concurring differently to the service of the whole. If the heart should be in the head, or the liver in the shoulder, if there should be any unnatural dislocation of the vital or nutritive parts, the body could not grow, but must perish. The way for the church to prosper and flourish, is for every member to keep in his own rank and order, to remember his own measure, to act in his own sphere, to manage his particular condition and relations with spiritual wisdom and humility; the eye to do the work of an eye, the hand of a hand. Say not as Absalom, If I were a judge, I would do justice, 2 Sam. xv. 4; but consider what state God has set thee in, and in that walk with God, and adorn the profession of the gospel, Rom. xii. 3; 1 Cor. xii. 8; xi. 28, 29; 2 Cor. X. 13, 14; Eph. iv. 7. Remember Uzzah; it was a good work which he did, but because he did it out of order, having no call, God smote him for his error, 2 Sam. vi. 6, 7. There are excellent works, which, being done without the call of God, do not edify, but disturb the bod)’, Rom. x. 15; Heb. v. 4. Every man must walk in the church “as God hath distributed” and “hath called,” and “every man” must, “in the same calling wherein he was called,” “therein abide with God,” 1 Cor. vii. 17, 20, 24.

2. Joints and ligaments so fastening these members together, that each one may be serviceable to the increase of the whole. Col. ii. 19. There are bands which join the body to the Head, without which it can neither grow nor live, namely, the Spirit of Christ, and faith in him, 1 Cor. vi. 17; Rom. viii. 9; Eph. iii. 17: and there are bands which join the parts of the body to one another; as namely, the same Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. xii. 13; which Spirit of grace stirs up every member to seek the growth and benefit of the whole, 1 Cor. xii. 25, 26. The sincere love and truth which each member bears to all the rest, is called “the bond of perfectness,” CoL iii. 14, and “the bond of peace,” Eph. iv. 3. Now love is a most communicative grace, it will plant, and water, and feed, and spend itself for the good of the whole, it will deny itself to serve the body, (as Chi-ist did,) Gal. v. 13.

3. A measure belonging to every part. Some are in one office, others in another, some have one gift, others another, and all this “for the perfecting of the saints,” Eph. iv. 11, 12; 1 Cor. xii. 4, 11: one is able to teach, another to comfort, a thu’d to convince, a fourth to exhort, a fifth to counsel, and every one of these are to be directed to the edification and growth of the whole, Rom. xii. 3 — 8; Eph. iv. 7. The apostle saith, that we are “fellow citizens with the saints,” Eph. ii. 19. Now as amongst fellow citizens there is wont

to be an intercourse of mutual negocia- ^’“‘’ t’t’c’.’S^^^”’ tion, one man has one commodity, and another another, and with these they usually carry on mutual barter; so amongst the saints, one man is eminent in one grace, another in another, and according to then- mutual requirements, or abilities, they interchangeably minister to one another towards the growth of the whole.

4. ‘Jl7rix;wp?7yia, the supply of service and the supply of nourishment which one part affords to another, and so to the whole. This is principally from the Head to the members, called by the apostle, “the supply of the Spii’it of Jesus Christ,” Phil. i. 19; of whose fulness we receive “grace for grace,” John i. 16; into whose image we are transformed “from glory to glory,” 2 Cor. iii. 18: but it is proportionably between the members amongst themselves; for as several particular ingredients make up one cordial, and several instruments concur to the perfecting of one aTtonXiajia, or consummate work, and the beauty of every thing arises out of the variety, order, and mutual serviceableness which the parts thereof have one to another; so in the church, Christ has so tempered it together, that they might all stand mutually in need one of another. Therefore we find the saints in Scripture communicating to one another their experiences, temptations, deliverances, comforts, for their mutual edification, Psal. xxxiv. 2, 6; John i. 41, 45; iv. 29; 2 Cor. i. 4, 6; Phil. i. 12 — 14; Col. ii. 1, 2. And God’s dealings with saints in particular are therefore registered in the Scripture, both that we might learn thereby to build up one another, and that by their examples we might support our faith, and through patience and experience of the Scripture have hope, because what has been done to one is in the like condition applicable to eveiy other, James v. 10, 11, 17; Rom. xv. 4; 1 Cor. x. 6; Heb. xiii. 5.

5. ‘EvEpyji’a, an effectual working, a iivajxiQ itKaaTiKf) or mwTiictj, a faculty to form and to concoct the matter, which has been subministered, to life and nourishment: which is the work of faith, and of the Spirit of Christ; whereby the soul of a believer, being sensible of want, desii-ous of supply, and pressing forward to perfection, sweetly closes with whatsoever the measm-e of any other part has communicated to it, converting it to its own growth and nourishment, which the apostle calls the mixing of the word with fait’n, Heb. iv. 2. Thus far in respect of the growth of the church; but he further promises,

4. That the beauty of his church shall be as “the olive tree;” that as she should have the glory of the lily, the strength and extension of the cedar, so this spreading should not be a vain ostentation, but should have joined with it the flourishing and fruitfulness of the olive. Now the honour of the olive tree consists in two things, perpetual greenness, and most profltable fruit, which serves both for light, to cause the lamp to burn, Exod. xxvii. 20, and for nourishment, to be eaten,

Lev. li. 15, 16: in the one respect it is an emblem of peace, it makes the face shine, Psal. civ. 15; and in the other it is an emblem of grace, and spiritual gifts, 1 John ii. 20. These are the “two most excellent benefits which God promises to his people; “He will speak peace unto” them, Psal. lxxxv. 8; Isa. xxxii. IT; and he “will give” them “grace and glory,” Psal. kxsiv. 11. And as he promises, so should we practise these things, and learn to beautify the gospel of Christ, first, with our good works, as the fruits of his grace, John XV. 8; secondly, with our spiritual joy and comfort, as the fruits of his peace; that others, seeing the light and shining forth of a serene, calm, and peaceable conscience in our conversation, may thereby be brought in love with the ways of God. These two mutually cherish and increase one another. The more conscience we make of fruitfulness, the more way do we make for peace; when the waters of lust are sunk, the dove will quickly bring in an olive branch: and the more the peace of God rules in the heart, the more will it strengthen the conscience and care of obedience, from these considerations: fir.st, thankfulness for so great a blessing: secondly, fear to forfeit it: thirdly, wisdom to improve and increase it.

5. That his church shall be in “smell as Lebanon,” and that “the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon,” as elsewhere we find her compared to a garden of “all the chief spices,” Cant. iv. 12, 14; she shall be filled with the sweet savour of the gospel of Christ. “Thanks be unto God,” saith the apostle, “which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place; for we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ,” 2 Cor. ii. 14, 15: -where there arc two metaphors, one of a sweet ointment, the other of a triumph. The name of Christ is compared to an “ointment,” Cant. i. 3; and the preaching of the gospel, which is malung manifest the savour of this ointment, is called the bearing of Christ’s name. Acts ix. 15. Now, this sweet savour is annexed

to a triumphal solemnity, because in all times of public joy they were wont to anoint themselves with sweet oil, which is therefore called oleum Icptitiip, “the co4“i,^ncSbM- oil of gladness,” Psal. xlv. 7; Isa. lxi. 3. Tas^Ti. 6^’%id. (For in times of mom-ning they abstained AtiicMum, lib. 15. from sweet ointments, 2 Sam. xiv. 2; Dan. X. 2, 3.) The gospel therefore being a message of “great joy,” Luke ii. 10; a leading of “captivity captive,” and the means whereby Christ goes forth gloriously, “conquering, and to conquer,” Psal. xlv. 3,4; ex. 2; Rev. vi. 2; therefore they who brought these good tidings are said to be as a “sweet savour,” whose lips drop “sweet smelling mjTrh,” Cant. V. 13, and whose doctrine is compared to the “powders of the merchant,” Cant. iii. G; and the time of the gospel is called an “accepted time,” “the day of salvation,” 2 Cor. vi. 2; that is, a time of singular joy and solemnity, a continual Easter, or festival, 1 Cor. v. 7, 8: and herewithal he promises likewise, that his people should offer up spiritual incense and services to him in ])raycrs, thanksgivings, alms, and good works, Ezek. XX. 40.

And as he promises, so we should practise these things. Our care should be to let our lips and lives breathe forth nothing but grace and edification. Col. iv. 6; to be frequent in the spiritual sacrifices of prayer, thanksgiving, and good works, which may be as “an odour of a sweet smell” before God, Phil. iv. 18; Rev. viii. 4; to labour to leave behind us “a good name,” not out of vain-glory, or an empty, ambitious aflectation of honour, but out of the conscience of a holy life, which makes the name smell “better than precious ointment,” Keel. vii. 1.

6. That “they that dwell under his shadow shall re-Convivia, ludi — poturn.” Which words admit of a double sense, and so infer a double promise and a double duty. 1. We may by an hysteron-proteron understand the words thus. When Israel have repented and are brought home to God again, they shall have security, defence, protection, refreshment under the comforts of his grace, against all the violence of temptation, as a spreading tree affords a sweet shade to the weary traveller, and shelters him from the oppression of the heat; whereby is signified the secure, quiet, and comfortable condition of God’s people under the protection of his providence and promises, Job vii. 2; Isa. iv. 6; Jlicah iv. ~4; Zech. iii. 10.

And as he promises such a condition, so should we in all troubles not trust in an “arm of flesh,” or betake ourselves to mere human wisdom and carnal counsels, which are too thin shelters against God’s displeasure, or the enemies of the church; but we must fly to him to hide us, we must find spiritual refreshment in his ordinances, promises, and providence, get his wing to cover us, and his presence to be a “little sanctuary” unto us, and ‘■ the joy of the Lord” to be our “strength,” Psal. lvii. 2; xci. 1; Isa. xxvi. 20; Neh. viii. 10. When the Lord comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the land for their iniquity; when flood and fii-e, storm and tempest, the fury of anger, the strength of battle, are poured out upon a people; when a destropng angel is sent abroad with a commission to kill and slay, Ezek. ix. 5, 6; when Death, the king of terrors, “rides up and down in triumph, stripping men of treasures, lands, friends, honours, pleasures, making them a house in darkness, where master and servant, princes and prisoners, are all alike: to have then an ark with Noah, a Zoar with Lot, a Goshen in Egypt: to have one arm of this olive tree spread over us; to have one promise out of God’s word, one sentence from the mouth of Christ promising paradise to us, is infinitely of more value to a languishing spirit than all the diadems of the earth, or the peculiar treasure of princes.

2. If we take the words in the order in which they lie, then the mercy here promised is, that when God shall restore and repair his church, they who dwell under its comforts shall return and be converted to the knowledge and obedience which shall be there taught them. Alnien “the branch of the Lord” is “beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth excellent and comely,” then “he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy,” Isa. iv. 2, 3; then every vessel in Judah and Jerusalem shall be inscribed, “Holiness unto the Lord,” Zech. xiv. 20, 21; then “the heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly,” Isa. xxxii. 4.

And this should be the endeavour of every one who lives under the shade of this tree, under the purity of God’s ordinances, under the pious government and constitution of such a church or family as is here described, especially in these times, when, on the one side, the world is so much loosened and estranged from us, and, on the other side, reformation in the church is so much to be desired, to convert and turn men unto the Lord. All endeavours after reformation in a church are miserably defective, when they come short of this, which should be the ultimate reason of them all, namely, the repentance and conversion to God of those that dwell under its shadow. When God promises to give to his church “the glory of Lebanon,” and “the excellency of Carmel and Sharon,” the consequence of this beauty and reformation in the church is,” the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break

TIIE PKOPHECY OF HOSEA.

out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water,” Isa. xxxv. 2, 5 — 7. “The wolf,” “the leopard,” “the lion,” “the bear,” “the asp,” “the cockatrice,” shall be so turned from the fierceness and malignity of their natures, that “they shall not hurt nor destroy in all” the “holy mountain,” but “a little child shall lead them,” Isa. xi. 6 — 9. It is a great happiness and advantage to live under the shade of a godly government; many have reason to bless God all their days that they were in their childhood trained up in such a school where piety was taught them as well as learning, where they had means as well of convei’sion as of institution; that they lived in such a family where the master of it was of Joshua’s mind, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord,” Josh. xxiv. 15. Salvation comes to a whole house when the governor thereof is converted, Luke xix. 9; Acts xvi. 33, 34. I shall never look on a church as effectually reformed, till I find reformation work conversion; till piety and charity, justice and mercy, truth, humility, gentleness, goodness, kindness, meekness, singleness of heart, zeal for godliness and mutual edification, and the life and power of religion, shine forth more conspicuously than before, len the very “headstone” is brought forth, and the last work in the building of the temple finished, yet then must the people cry, “Grace, grace unto it,” Zech. iv. 7; intimating that reformation is never indeed consummate till the blessing of God make it effectual to those uses for which it was by him appointed. Church reformation should be like Paul’s Epistles, which always close with duties of obedience.

7. That “they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine.” In which two expressions are set forth two excellent and wholesome consequences of affliction. 1. “The corn,” though it die first, and co“ipta°t”dSoiuta Suffer much from frost, hail, snow, tem-Snni!?p“‘reSsM- P^st, yet, wliBu the spring comes, revives vantur; ommide and breaks thi’ough all. So God prolur. Tertui. Apoi. mises to his church, m the saddest con- ‘”’’’ dition, a reviving again, and that it shall

be brought “forth to the light,” Ezek. xxxvii. 12; Micah vii. 9. 2. “The vine,” when pruned and lopped, will not only revive and spring again, but will bringforth the more fruit, and cast forth the more fragrant smell. So God promises to his people, not only a reviving out of their afflictions, (hence haply Christ was buried in a garden, to note, that death itself does not destroy our bodies, but only sow them; “the dew of herbs’’ will revive them again, 1 Cor. xv. 42 — 44,) but further, ii profiting by afflictions, that we may say with David, “it was good for” us, when we find it yield “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” after we have been “exercised thereby,” Psal. cxix. 71; Heb. xii. 11.

And as he promises these things, so we should learn to turn these promises into prayer and into practice. When we seem, in our own eyes, cast out of God’s sight, yet we must not cast him out of our sight, but, as Jonah in the whale’s belly, and as Daniel in Babylon, pray towards his holy temple still, Jonah ii. 4, 7; Dan. vi. 10. The woman of Canaan would not be thrust off with a seeming rejection, nor utterly despond under a grievous trial of faith, but, by a singular acumen and spiritual sagacitj’, discerned matter of argument in that which looked Uke a denial, Matt. xv. 27. Soap and fuller’s earth, when fh-st put on, seem to stain and soil the clothes, yet their use and end is to purify them. And God’s frowns and delays may seem to be the denials of prayer, when haply his end is to make the granting of them more full of profit and comfort. Therefore in all troubles we must not give over looking towards God, but say with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him,” Job xiii. 15.

And after all afflictions we must learn to evidence then- fruit, to come out of them refined, as silver out of the fii’e; to have thereby our faith strengthened, our hope confii’med, our love inflamed, our fruit and obedience increased, our sins taken away, and our iniquities purged; to be chastened and taught, to be chastened and converted, Isa. xxvii. 9. If we have run away from our duties, and been cast into a whale’s belly for it, when we are delivered let us be sure to look better to our resolutions afterwards: “After all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, should we again break” his “commandments?” Ezra ix. 13, 14. As Job’s riches after his afflictions, so we should endeavour that our graces after om’ afflictions may be doubled iqion us, and that the scent of our holy example may, like spices bruised, or the grapes of Lebanon crushed in the winepress, spread abroad a more fragrant smell befoi-e God and man, as “the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed,” Gen. xxvii. 27.

Lastly, He promises that all these should be fruits of Lebanon, of the best and most perfect kind: “The scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.” There are many evidences of the goodness of God even in the lives of pagan men: we read of Abimelech’s unwillingness to sin against God, Gen. xx. 4, 6, and of his and Ephron’s singular kindness to Abraham, Gen. xx. 14, 15; xxiii. 10, 11, 15. No argument more common than this of the virtues, the temperance, prudence, justice, mercy, patience, fidelity, friendships, affability, magnanimity, of many heathen men; insomuch that some have presumed so far as to make ,.., ,.

, i.. ,.. V id. egara.de

them ecc congruo meritorious, or cusposi- J“»’^t iit. 6. can. le, five to salvation. But all these are but orthodos.’kspucat. “wild grapes,” bitter clusters, the fruits ‘ioha’^fores. of an eraijty vine, not worth the gather- yaieiit.To.3.dispuL mg m order to salvation. But the graces fu. Erasm.Prefct which God bestows upon his ghureh are Aug. contta juiian. of a more spiritual and perfect nature, ^’^’’^’ ‘’ °’ ‘’ proceeding from faith in Christ, from love of God, from a conscience cleansed from dead works, from an intention to glorify God and adorn the gospel, from a new nature, and from the Spirit of Christ, conforming his senants to himself. They are not grapes of Sodom, but grapes of Lebanon.

And as he thus blesses us, in the like manner should we serve him; not offer to him the refuse, the halt, and blind, and maimed, for sacrifice; not give unto him of that which cost us nothing; but go to Lebanon for all our sacrifices, “covet earnestly the best gifts,” press forward and labour to perfect holiness in the fear of God. Give to him our lilies, the beauties of our minority; and our cedars, the strength of our youth: and our olives, and grapes, and corn, and wine: whatever gifts he has bestowed on us, use them to his service and honour again; nor content ourselves with “the form of godliness,” with the morality of virtues, with the outside of duties, with the seeds and beginnings of holiness, (he has none who thinks he has enough,) but strive how we shall outrun one another to Christ, as Peter and John did towards his sepulchre. It was a high pitch which Closes aimed at, when he said, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory,” Exod. xxxiii. IS. Nothing would satisfy him but fuhiess and satiety itself Be sure that all your graces come from Zion, and from Lebanon, that they grow in Immanuel’s land: till Christ own them, God will not accept them. Moral virtues and outward duties, grapes of Sodom, may commend us to men; nothing but inward, spiritual, and rooted graces, the grapes of Lebanon, will commend us to God. To do only the outward works of duty, without the inw’ard principle, is at best but to make ourselves like those mixed beasts, elephants and camels, in the civil law, operam. prasstant, nalura /era est,

Leg. 5. p. aiiLrj. which, though they do the work of tame

bJ^J^cIS.”: clp. beasts, yet have the nature of -nild ones.

“■ !Moral virtue, without spiritual piety,

S;iii>“l’’/ap!’19!” commends not any man to God; for we

»t pWm.’ Greg. ’ are not accepted of him but in C’hri.st,

q.’3?.n“t. 2.” ’ and we are not in Christ but by the Holy Spirit.